Commanders offensive personnel not doing enough to help Jayden Daniels

The Commanders offense was sloppy against the Cowboys. The lack of help Daniels received from his teammates really stood out

In watching back the Commanders loss to the Cowboys with the intent to break down Jayden Daniels' performance, I found myself noting over and over again that the team around him was making too many mistakes. Daniels didn’t have his best game, but it also wasn’t his worst. Promisingly, he looked to have his explosiveness back as a runner, suggesting the extra few days off has helped him fully recover from that rib injury that appeared to be hindering him the past few games. 

But while there is plenty to be said about Daniels performance individually, I thought the more striking issue was the lack of help he was getting from his teammates. The Commanders offense was incredibly sloppy against the Cowboys, with various players making multiple errors that prevented the offense and most importantly Daniels from getting into a real rhythm and flow of the game. Daniels did his best to try and make plays himself and overcome those mistakes, but while it’s great to have a quarterback capable of making plays and overcoming errors, it’s not something any offense can consistently rely on. Doing that will generate bad habits and that’s the last thing they want to do with Daniels. The players around him need to make plays for him, not require him to make plays for them. 

There were bad signs of this early on in the game. The Commanders started to get moving on their second drive. They had picked up a first down, hit on a couple nice runs and even threw in a little trick play with an end-around to Dyami Brown. But after a second and four run got stopped for two yards, the Commanders faced third and two. Now this is exactly the situation they want to be in, ahead of the chains with a third and manageable situation where they can realistically call either a run or a pass to try and convert. On this occasion they call a pass. 

Here we see the Commanders run what I know as a missile concept. It’s a three-man concept with all three receivers running in-breaking routes at slightly varied depths. The idea here is for each receiver to either break open into space over the middle, or take a defender with them to open up space behind them for the next receiver to run into. 

Olamide Zaccheaus and Zach Ertz both do their jobs, working inside and dragging defenders with them to open up space for Noah Brown on the outside. Brown runs a solid route, creating separation as he breaks inside. Daniels shows good trust in Brown, getting set and delivering the throw as Brown is making his cut, believing in his receivers ability to win the route. He delivers a good ball that hits Brown in stride right between the numbers, but Brown drops it. 

Instead of using his big frame and long arms to extend his arms and make a hands catch away from his body he allows the ball to get into his chest, trying to trap it between his body and his arms. One of the problems with that technique is that the point of the football is prone to bouncing in odd directions, so when the ball hits his chest and he doesn’t time the trap between his arms and the chest correctly, the ball bounces out and falls incomplete. 

There’s no good drops, but that one is a particular back breaker because the Commanders were starting to get a drive going, well into the Cowboys territory and were on track to score a touchdown to make it 10-0 early in the game. But instead Brown dropped the pass on third down, failing the conversion and the Commanders had to kick a field goal which they missed. It wasn’t the only pass Noah Brown dropped on third down in this game either. 

This play comes at a very different situation in the game. At this point, the Commanders were losing 10-9 late in the third quarter and had just gone three and out on their previous drive. So the team needed to put together a drive to try and get back in the game. After Daniels marginally missed a tough throw to Ertz on second down, the Commanders faced third and seven. Noah Brown runs a curl route to the right of the formation. Daniels drops back to pass and immediately lines up to throw the curl to Brown. He gets to the top of his drop and anticipates Brown’s break, delivering the throw before Brown gets out of his cut. 

That was all very good from Daniels, but Brown again lets him down here. First, Brown comes out of the break soft. He’s well beyond the first down marker, so he has ground to give. He could easily come out of the break sharper and work back to the back to try and separate more from the defender. Secondly, despite Brown not coming out of the break with great urgency, Daniels is still able to hit him with a very well placed throw. It’s such an accurate throw, in fact, that it god through Brown’s hands and hits him directly in the facemask. 

Now I don’t want to place all the offensive issues on Noah Brown because there is a lot going on with the offense right now and it’s far more than just one player or coach that is responsible. But Daniels is a rookie quarterback with outstanding talent and the ability to make things happen and turn games back in the Commanders favor. To do that, he needs his receivers to make plays. Brown dropped two key third down passes which killed drives. 

Of course, Brown wasn’t the only one with issues. Daniels’ first interception was another play where the receiver, this time Brian Robinson, couldn’t hold onto a pass.